Either way global warming is changing the climate and is a major reason for the deterioration of the reef. It causes an increase of the average sea surface temperature, increases the average sea level, and changes ocean water circulation. It also changes rainfall patterns and creates an increase in CO2 in the ocean causing altered ocean chemistry. Because of the ocean temperature rising, the algae that give the coral its color is leaving to get to cooler water. Because of the climate changes animals are leaving and dying and plants are dying.
Clown fish are so heavily dependent on the reefs due to the fact that the anemone live only in these areas. Increases in the acidity level are another detrimental factor coming from the global climate change. This inhibits the clown fish's ability to detect chemical signals that
Climate change seems to be one of the major forces of their possible extinction. There have been too many large oil spills over the years that have also placed their existing population
However, human impact is causing the vulnerable Reef to change at too fast of a rate, and recovery is uncertain. The intensity of human actions in Queensland has not only affected the corals, but all of the ecosystems and organisms in it. For over a decade, Queensland's rapid agricultural, coastal and mining development has been severely diminishing the Great Barrier Reef and its organisms, and is threatening the Reef's future existence. Even though only 9% of the Great Barrier Reef’s ecosystems are covered in coral, there are 14 other ecosystems that are all essential to the Reef's functions. These ecosystems provide important links between land, freshwater and marine environments, as well as feeding and breeding grounds for many marine species (Great Barrier Reef Coastal Ecosystems).
Explain the effects of climate change use examples. On the whole, climate change has very negative consequences on people and the environment in the long term, and if nothing is done to prevent the ongoing increase in temperature, then plant and animal species globally will be faced with extinction. The only positive impact being that as the temperature rises by three degrees centigrade, crop yield in western Europe will increase, which will give the UK an economic boost for trade, since more variety of food can be grown. With the increase of temperature and the retreating of glaciers, the sea levels have been rising at about 3.3mm every year, which doesn’t seem like a lot however this is enough of an increase for the Tuvalu islands, in the Pacific Oceans, to start being submerged by water. The population of some of the 9 islands has started to be evacuated to New Zealand with on average 75 people moving every year.
This affects the central nervous system of fish so that they are paralyzed and can't breathe. As a result, red tide blooms often result in dead fish washing up on beaches. Red tides often occur when fresh water runoff creates a stratified surface layer above colder nutrient rich waters. Fast growing algae quickly strip away nutrients in the upper layer, leaving nitrogen
It is a problem because the level of water population we have now can kill the animals within the water. Some of these animals we use to feed many people, so it messes with our own food supply. If this is not stopped people may kill off all oceans and the very food supply we need. This would leave many people, who eat fish, to stare, if fish was there main means of food. Recently people, or human activities have contributed to this problem because not only are we still dumping, we are also still drilling in these water sources.
But people developed lots of coastal development (dredging, mangrove removal, seawall construction, alteration of freshwater flow) and they had fewer places to live. That caused them to die. Third problem is their low reproductive ability. Like sharks, they breed very slow and produce very few babies. Because of overfishing and habitat loss it will take years to reproduce all that amount of sawfish that were killed.
They are areas so overloaded with pollutants that they have difficulty sustaining any life.” Dead Zones are created by fertilizer and pollution run off from our very own backyards. These harmful chemicals use our river and stream systems as an easy alley-way type access to our coastal areas. Because of all the chemical run offs from farms that are near the coastline, countries that thrive off of agricultural activity have extremely high contents of population in the ocean surrounding them. With all the chemicals being dumped into the ocean, this creates large patches of ocean along the coastline that have absolutely no oxygen, therefore earning the nickname “dead zone”. Due to the Dead Zone’s lack of oxygen, no living organism can survive in any given patch of that type of water.
The coral bleaching was first noticed in the 1980’s and since then the reef has been experiencing frequent and repetitive mass bleaching. Though salinity has been effectively prominent, there is also presence of toxic chemicals, UV radiation as well as reduced temperatures. By the period 2012 to 2040, the experience with coral reef is expected to become more frequent in bleaching. This is seen as the greatest threat to the reef system in the world. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has forecast that this will mostly be caused by the high summer temperatures which induce bleaching.